A post from me after what...a year or more? I just wanted to share this cute idea for a teacher gift. I know you might be out of school already or at least figured out your teacher gift, but file this one away for another year. I actually did this for Little Think's teacher for Christmas.

I sent out an email to all the parents asking them to find out what their child liked about Mrs. P. Then I took a few of the "best ones" and ironed them on with iron transfer paper to a $8.99 tote bag from Hobby Lobby. (I know you would have sewn your own fabulous bag but you know all about my long and storied history with sewing....)

It was a bit tricky ironing into the tight spaces around the handles but it turned out okay. I used all different fonts so it was like each child saying it in their own voice. The black flower was a hair clip that I snaped on to gussy it up a bit. I have no idea how it held up in the long run but the teacher loved. It even made her cry which is like the gold medal of gift giving in my book.

I had so many other cute quotes from the kids that I typed them up and but the kids names around the outside. I printed it on nice paper and framed it out in a black $6.99 frame. I told Mrs. P to put it where she would see it everyday and know what a difference she was making everyday.

Hopefully it won't take another year for me to post again but you never know....

So hang in with me on this long story, it has a clever idea at the end I promise.

The past two summers we have hopped free military flights over to Europe. A nice military benefit we get because of Major Mister Pink and his job in the Army. Being free made taking three little kids easier and two of them were even in diapers.

The first summer we got to the airport and were lucky to get to Germany, which was our plan. Yet when we got to Germany we then decided to find our way to Italy, France and Austria and Switzerland.

Then last summer we planned a big trip all through Italy. The girls watched movies about Italy and we did a ton of research. When we got to the airport the flight we wanted was canceled so we hopped on the next one (a 5 minute decision) that was going to Spain. It was not till we were over the Atlantic Ocean that we looked at a map to see where we were landing in Spain. It was no where near where we thought. So our Italy trip went fast out the window and we now were asking the other 10 people on the KC10 refueling Jet anything they knew about what to do in Spain.

One of the pilots told us to go to the Rock of Gibraltar, but to watch out for the Monkeys. We seriously thought he was kidding.We spent 2 weeks in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and did find our way to the Rock of Gibraltar.

We made it to Gibraltar and the rock looked just like I had imagined it from growing up seeing it on all the Prudential life insurance advertising. (did you you know that was the rock?)

Anyway we drove on the island and then I started asking the locals what to do and what we should see. A tour guide who was taking a break from his tour told us how to drive to the top of the rock. He then said, "if you see any monkeys make sure you feed them"

So we then drove up to the top in a spiral like fashion on these small little roads. We saw monkeys' everywhere, 2 yards from our car. So Mister Pink told the girls to throw a pretzel out there. (this was the monkey). So they threw out their pretzel and in a flash of a second this is what happened.....

he jumped in the car! Of course I grab my camera first to take a photo. (yep mom of the year - NOT) After the photo he then jumped in on her head and was fully in our small Geo Metro. We were all screaming like a family of monkeys. Mister Pink was screaming like a little girl and this may have been the only time I have ever seen him freak out. The Monkeys were huge! His teeth were shiny and sharp. We finally got him to jump off of her head and then it jumped on the roof of the car. Mister Pink was trying to drive fast, but remember we were on small one lane roads on top of a mountain. The windows were all manual roll up windows and I could not reach over to roll it up. We then thought the monkey was gone, but again it jumped back into the car. Mister Pink finally hit it hard with his backpack and it jumped out of the car. We stopped the car, rolled up all the windows and then sat there SCREAMING. All of us. I laugh at the computer as I type this. We were in freak out mode for 5 minutes.

It was for sure the highlight of our trip and we love to tell the story to anyone who will listen.

The year before our 2nd child was horned by a cow on the top of a mountain in Switzerland trying to take the bell of her neck - so who knows what will happen this year (yep we are going to try to go again at the end of August)

So here comes my clever idea. Every year for the first day of school the girls bring in a book to give to the teacher. We draw their hand and write a little story about what they did that summer. We also put a photo of them.

This year we bought one of those ginormous books at Costco. good thing they had the 5 little monkeys, it was perfect.

We wrote the story about her experience with the monkey and a little note to the teacher. They read it all year long in circle time. ( i am sure that added more trauma to my little but makes for a great story)

Even though school is starting in about a month keep your eye out for a great book to bring to the teacher for the first day (it lasts a lot longer than i shiny red apple)

Have a great summer day

Pink ::

p.s. we later found out it is illegal to feed the monkeys and saw signs everywhere that you could be fined 500 pounds for doing so. That tour guide must still be laughing at telling me "make sure you feed them!"

Oh my why do I get myself in such things. Yesterday a girlfriend and I planned a end of the year party for all the 4th graders. She is a creative wizard and I can not take any credit for all of this coming together.

We had parents all bring in different summer items to put together in $1.00 buckets that she painted with their names and covered in bright ribbon. (what will I do when I no longer live by the ribbon outlet?)

sunglasses

sunscreen

summer magazine

water bottles

cozie's

We then made all teachers candy lei's to put around their neck while we thanked them and let the 4th graders cheer for them. I forget how great these are! So easy, cheap and fun.

My friends best idea ever was to have the kids sign a big banner that we can hang in the 5th grade hall on the first day of school next year. We started out with the idea of buying a white sheet and spray painting it, but ha ha you know me too well. The spray paint went out the window and gingham check applique took it's place on yellow brushed cotton. I just did large iron ons for the words.

Even though you are out of the school mode this might be fun for next year.

Now I'm not sure if this is cheating on my "a post every day" pledge but I'm going to do it anyway. You know I have a personal blog. A personal blog that I PAY for. (I love you Typepad)A personal blog that I have not posted to since NOVEMBER!!!Yeah that one. Brilliant I know. So much for being financially frugal. Paying for something that I don't use. Sounds just like my gym membership. Ha! I guess I have this "fantasy me" that really does things like post my family's wonderful memories for extended family members and exercises to keep in shape.

Oh well. I digress.

Still awake? Okay, so today in my email I start getting emails that people were posting comments on that blog. For a post I did in August. I checked my stats and my visitor count was sky high. What the?? Checked around and found out Tip Junkie had used my Meet the Teacher idea on her blog post about gifts for teachers and linked to mine. So funny. I am totally flattered she thought the idea worthy of notice but it was such a surprise that people were looking at my little lost forlorn blog. I wished I could have spruced the place up a bit. Changed the NOVEMBER header at least.

So I figured I should repost it here too for those looking for Teacher Ideas. Remember this?

From my blog, and I quote:

It's just a bunch of #2 pencils around a Crystal Light canister thingy
{you could use a OJ can too}. We used 3 white rubberbands to hold them
in place and a piece of cardboard taped on the bottom to hold them up.
You could glue them on but I like the idea of the teacher being able to
use the pencils for her class when the flowers fade away. The flowers
were beautiful. But I did not know that these particular red sunflowers
where dyed red. The water was so pink and turned everything pink. So
glad I used a disposable vase. Just thought I'd let you know if you
plan on using them in a clear vase. You have to like pink & red
together. {i'm personally not a huge fan}

Thanks Tip Junkie for making my original idea even better! Had not thought of it as being just as great for the last day of school as the first day.

Oh, here's another thing I just gave Little Think's teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Mrs. Spitzer's Garden by Edith Pattou Illustrated by Tricia Tusa.

Darling book about a kindergarten teacher who gets a packet of seeds from the principal at the beginning of the year and how she helps each little plant to grow.

"Some of the plants grow quickly, pushing upward, eager, impatient. Some grow more slowly, unfolding themselves bit by bit...A few are like wildflowers and will grow anywhere you put the. And some need gentle care, a special watching-over."

Does that not sound like a Kindergarten Teacher?

I found this book at a discount book seller for $2.50 months ago. Amazon has it here. But the best part is, after I bought it, I read the dust jacket about the author. She wrote this for her daughter's Kindergarten teacher. A teacher At my elementary school that I went to growing up in Ohio. What are the odds of that? Originally I wanted to design a seed packet with Little Think's face on it to put in as a bookplate but I ran out of time.

Boy, this is a long, rambling post. Must be the Diet Dr. P that I consumed while watching "Taken" earlier this evening. My heart is just pounding after that movie. Little Think is NEVER traveling to Europe!!!

I was in charge of putting together gift baskets for a fundraiser event at Little Think's Elementary School a few weeks ago. Each grade was to donate items for 2 gift baskets and then people bid on them in a silent auction. Other grades did baskets with Art Supplies or Family Game Night stuff or Movie Night stuff.

We have a hip hair dresser mom in Little Think's kindergarten who was willing to donate lots of good stuff so we did a spa basket full of hair products, candles, pedicure kits, soaps, loofahs, etc. We got a ton of donations. (Some were a little scary...as in dusty stuff from the back of people's linen closet...yikes!) I didn't think I could find a basket to fit it all but I went to my Goodwill and for $2.99 I found this GINORMOUS basket. Seriously it was at least 2.5 feet wide! I could not believe my luck. Weighed about 50 pounds filled up....

But what I really wanted to show you was the Gift Card basket we did.

I asked people to donate any kind of gift card in any amount. Ended up with Target, Sonic, iTunes, Movie Theaters, Restaurants etc. Really pretty good stuff.

To make it pretty I glued some green floral foam in the bottom of a black square basket someone donated.

(See the foam down in there? Not a great shot but you get the idea.)

Then I used some Floral Wire and threaded some Circle Paper Clips on that I had around the house to make clips to hold the cards above the foam.

Then I tucked in tissue paper in reds, oranges, and yellows covering the foam and poking up like the cards were exploding out of the basket. (Michael's has a warm tissue pack that was perfect.) I called it "Card Kaboom" and it went at the auction for a ton of money. (Yay school!)

But I was really thinking that this would be a great thing to do for teachers at the end of the year too. Ask class members to bring in gift cards and make a tag that says something like

"Thanks For Blowing Our Minds This Year!" "We Think You're The Bomb!" "Our Brains are Exploding Because of You" "This Year was an Educational Explosion!"

(or something WAY better than those lines....its late and my brain is already in bed. Maybe I'll think of better ones tomorrow. Maybe.)

Another way would be to attach the gift cards to scrapbook paper flower shapes and poke them out of a vase or garden pot. "Thanks for helping us grow" or "We are blooming because of you!" etc, etc, etc.

Anyway you get the idea. I think it is just a great way to give a gift from a large group of people that you have no creative control over. (did that sound design snobby?)

When you get back if you are in the mood for a little St. Patrick's Day craft here is a cheap and easy one. At the girls preschool they had used this recipe to make some Valentine ornaments and I had been wanting to try it for sometime.

Clever Clovers

2 cups of Flour2 cups of Salt1 cup of Water

Mix the ingredients with a spoon until they look like this

Then use your hands to form into a ball

Add some drops of food coloring (if you make it all the same color, I would color the 1 cup of water) My favorite food coloring is the neon colors - I used the lime green for these.

Color all you dough into different balls ( I could not resist and had to make one pink too)

Roll dough onto pan and cut directly on the pan so that you don't have to move it after it has been cut (trust me on this one) Using a straw cut the hole to hang on the ribbon. I used a toothpick to add the stitched dots on the edge.

I even made some with pink hearts!Bake at 250 degrees - starting at 20 minute increments. Depending on how thick you make them will determine how long you cook them. These I baked for 40 minutes.

Then get a nail file to file down the sides of any loose dough (this is the crazy perfectionist in me)

Use Modge Podge after it has cooled to make it a bit shine. ( I also made some with glitter that turned out great)

I knew I wanted rainbow ribbon for these and could not believe I found it. (at Michael's) but in case you don't you could buy the thin ribbon and string all the rainbow colors through.

I never really finished showing you what we did for Valentine cards and our big exciting day. It was pretty chaotic actually, but I always love a good chaotic day once in a while. My last minute class gift of a Valentine Mug and Target gift card came together thanks to cellophane and ribbon- which in my opinion makes any gift exciting.

about 20 minutes before I ran out the door I was doing the iron on
for the teacher's Valentine Apron. I am so last minute. She really loved it and wore it the rest of the day.

The other funny thing was I had made heart pancakes for breakfast and told the girls that I had a special fruit dip to put on the pancakes. Little Pink ran upstairs to her room and said "Oh I have fruit dip" She dug through her class valentine bag and came back down stairs with her fun dip saying , "look mom Fruit dip - it is blue raspberries!" I am not sure what should bother me more the fact she thought this was acceptable to put on her pancakes or that blue raspberries is an actual fruit!

Dear Think::I am sure you and anyone else reading this is already out of school and has no need for a teacher gift for this year. (can you believe that our kids are still in school today! and I just found out Jeff is working all day on Christmas Eve - rats!)This is the class gift I made (yep, still the room mom) from the parents. Our teacher does not celebrate Christmas so I had to keep it off the red and green side of things, gave me a good excuse to use some of my bright colored ribbon.

Large funky basket from The Salvation Army- $3.99

Cracker Jacks 2 for $1.99

bag of unpopped popcorn - $2.49

Carbonated Water (the teachers favorite) 3 for $5.00

Gift cards $125.00

The magic of cellophane and gobs of ribbon to make anything look cute - priceless!

Then a little play on words, get it great teacher, but it is in poor English. ha ha ha. (i hope she thinks it is just as funny)

I got this great idea from Emily W. in Tennessee and have used it many times and it is always a great hit. It makes a great neighbor gift with a 2 liter bottle of 7up (being green) a bag of microwave popcorn on top and wrapped in cellophane and bright red ribbon. I am telling you cellophane and ribbon make anything look great.